President of the Nigerian Senate, Bukola Saraki, has said that for democracy to thrive, there is a need for the different components that make up a society to express their views without necessarily causing violence, News.ng reports.
Senator Saraki, a former Governor of Kwara State, while reflecting on his time as president of the Senate, noted that the country needs lawmakers who will be bold enough to speak up when the time arises.
The senator, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who was a guest speaker at the June 12 edition of The Platform Nigeria on Friday, said a lawmaker has not lived up to expectations without carefully critiquing executive proposals before approving them.
He said, “Here is what democracy stability actually requires. That disagreement has somewhere to go. In societies with functioning legislatures, conflicts has nowhere, without, in societies without functioning legislatures, conflict has nowhere to go, except it is resolved on the streets, in the barracks, or at worst, to the barrel of a gun.
“But the parliament provides an arena where a divided country can argue without breaking. Whether you’re from the north, you’re from the south, you’re Muslim, you’re Christian, you have differences in views, you can argue and debate rather than violence. So what I learned in those four years in National Assembly is that a legislator that cannot say no is not a legislator at all. A legislator who simply receives executive proposals, approves them without scrutiny, and goes home has not fulfilled his constitutional mandate.
“It has merely performed a ceremonial function. It’s an echo. A democracy made only of echoes is only one election away from becoming something else entirely.
According to the former Senate President, the independence of the National Assembly should not be viewed as antagonism toward the executive but as part of fulfilling its constitutional mandate.
He noted that a legitimate government is one that has an independent National Assembly.
“He independence of the National Assembly is not rebellion against the government of the day. I say that so loud, having been a victim where you stand for independence of National Assembly, you’re saying, it’s a bad boy, Saraki’s bad, it’s against our government. And it says no, I don’t say it, I just speak about myself.
“We’re talking about how those institutions can do what they are meant to do in providing the mandate. Because if the National Assembly is independent, it’s a very great thing that makes the government legitimate because a mandate that is never tested is a mandate no one can trust. So how do you trust your government if it’s not a government that’s subjected to questions?” he said.
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